A power tool comprises three basic elements, namely an electrical power source, a switch and an electric motor, the switch being actuable to connect and disconnect the electrical power to the motor. The motor is arranged to drive some tool for performing operations.
The power source, switch and motor are generally inter-connected by sheathed wiring, as this is the simplest arrangement in terms of design. However, it does not lend itself to efficient automatic assembly and usually this has to be done by human operators intervening in an otherwise human-free assembly line. It is known to use other than flexible sheathed wires and many products employ rigid conductors bent and formed to follow a particular path and this eases automatic assembly. Nevertheless, these are difficult to design and must be done individually for each product.
As mentioned above, the present invention is primarily concerned with, although not limited to, cordless hand held vacuum cleaners in which the power source is a battery pack. In all practical situations the batteries are rechargeable. Also new regulations are being introduced to require rechargeable battery packs to be relatively simply removed for recycling purposes (and to avoid environmental contamination) when the cleaner is finally disposed of at the end of its working life. In a vacuum cleaner the "tool" which is driven by the motor is a fan impellor which produces the vacuum for effecting the cleaning operation. In addition there is, of course, a housing mounting the various components and having a nozzle in communication with the fan impellor and some collecting means for retaining the dust, debris or liquid sucked through the nozzle. A handle of some description will also be provided.
Nevertheless, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical arrangement for a power tool generally which is simple to assemble and disassemble, which lends itself to automatic assembly in its construction, and is flexible in its application to different embodiments of the tool.